Deuteronomy

32 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak,—And let the earth hear the sayings of my mouth:

2 Let my teaching drop as the rain, Let my speech distil as the dew,—As copious rains on tender grass, As myriad drops on seeding plants.

3 When the name of Yahweh I proclaim, Ascribe ye greatness unto our God:—

4 A Rock! faultless his work, For all his ways are just,—A God of faithfulness and without perversity, Right and fair is he!

5 They have broken faith with him to be no sons of his—their fault,—A generation twisted and crooked.

6 Is it Yahweh ye thus requite, O impious people and unwise? Is not he thy father who begat thee? He that made thee and established thee?

7 Remember the days of age-past times, Remark the years of many generations,—Ask thy father and he will tell thee, Thine elders and they will say to thee:—

8 When the Most High gave inheritances unto the nations, When he spread abroad the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples, According to the number of the sons of Israel.

9 For Yahweh’s portion is his people,—Jacob his inherited possession.

10 He met him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness,—He encompassed him, watched over him, Shielded him as the pupil of his own eye.

11 As an eagle stirreth up his nest, Over his young ones fluttereth,—Spreadeth abroad his wings, taketh one, Beareth it up on his pinions,

12 Yahweh alone did lead him,—And there was with him no God of a stranger.

13 He made him ride on the high places of the land, Caused him to eat the increase of the fields,—And gave him to suck honey out of the cliff, And oil out of the rock of flint:

14 Curds of kine and milk of sheep,—With fat of well-fed lambs, Yea rams bred in Bashan and he-goats, With the white of the kernels of wheat,—And the blood of the grape thou didst drink as it foamed.

15 Then Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: Thou wast fat, Thou wast thick, Thou wast gorged,—So he forsook the God who made him, And treated as foolish his Rock of salvation.

16 They moved him to jealousy with foreign [gods],—With abominations angered they him:

17 They sacrificed to mischievous demons to a No-God, Gods whom they knew not,—New ones lately come in, Your fathers never shuddered at them!

18 Of the Rock who had begotten thee, thou wast unmindful,—And didst forget God who had given thee birth.

19 When Yahweh saw, he derided,—Because his sons and his daughters gave provocation.

20 So he said:—I will hide my face from them, I will see what will be their hereafter,—For a generation given to intrigue they are, Sons whom there is no trusting;

21 They have moved me to jealousy with a No-God, They have angered me with their vanities: I, therefore, will move them to jealousy with a No-people, With an impious nation will I anger them.

22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And shall burn as far as hades beneath,—And consume the earth with her produce, And set ablaze the foundations of the mountains:

23 I will heap on them calamities,—Mine arrows will I spend upon them:

24 The meltings of hunger, The devourings of fever, And the dangerous pestilence,—And the tooth of beasts will I send among them, With the poison of crawlers of the dust:

25 Without shall the sword bereave, In the inmost recesses terror,—[To] both young man and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hairs.

26 I said, I would puff them away,—I would destroy from mortals their memory;

27 Were it not that the taunt of the foe I feared, Lest their adversaries should mistake,—Lest they should say—Our own hand is exalted, It is not Yahweh, therefore, who hath wrought all this!

28 For a nation of vanished sagacity they are,—And there is in them no understanding.

29 If they had been wise they would have understood this,—They would have given heed to their hereafter!

30 Oh! how would one have chased a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight,—Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And Yahweh had abandoned them;

31 For not like our Rock is their rock,—Our enemies themselves being judges;

32 For of the vine of Sodom is their vine, And of the vineyards of Gomorrah,—Their grapes are grapes of gall, Clusters of bitter things are theirs:

33 The poison of large serpents is their wine,—Yea the fierce venom of asps.

34 Is not that stored up with me,—Sealed up amongst my treasures;

35 Unto the days of vengeance and requital: Unto the time their foot shall totter? For near is the day of their fate, And their destiny speedeth on.

36 For Yahweh will vindicate his people, And upon his servants will have compassion,—When he seeth that strength is exhausted, And there is no one shut up or at large,

37 Then will he say Where are their gods, The rock in whom they have trusted;

38 Who used to eat the fat of their sacrifices, To drink the wine of their libations? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be over you for a covering!

39 See now that I, I am he that is, And there are no gods with me,—I kill—and make alive, I wound and I heal, And there is none who from my hand can deliver,

40 For I lift up unto the heavens my hand,—And say, Living am I unto times age-abiding:

41 If I whet my flashing sword, And my hand take hold on justice, I will return vengeance unto mine adversaries, And them who hate me will I requite:

42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh,—With the blood of the slain and the captive, With [the flesh of] the chief leader of the foe.

43 Shout for joy O ye nations [with] his people, For the blood of his servants he avengeth,—And vengeance he returneth unto his adversaries, And is propitious unto the soil of his people.

44 So Moses came in and spake all the words of this Song in the hearing of the people,—he and Hoshea, son of Nun.

45 And when Moses made an end of speaking all these words unto all Israel,

46 he said unto them—Apply your hearts unto all the words which I am witnessing against you to-day,—how that ye must command your sons to observe to do all the words of this law;

47 for it is not too small a thing for you, for it is your life,—and hereby shall ye prolong your days upon the soil whereunto ye are passing over the Jordan to possess it.

48 And Yahweh spake unto Moses, on this selfsame day, saying:

49 Get thee up into this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is over against Jericho—and behold the land of Canaan which I am giving unto the sons of Israel for a possession;

50 and die thou in the mount whither thou art going up, and be withdrawn unto thy kinsfolk,—as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was withdrawn unto his kinsfolk;

51 for that ye acted unfaithfully against me in the midst of the sons of Israel, regarding the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the desert of Zin,—for that ye hallowed me not in the midst of the sons of Israel.

52 Yet over against thee shalt thou behold the land,—but thereinto shalt thou not enter, into the land which I am giving unto the sons of Israel.